With typical printers, and in particular xerographic printers, the regulation of density of the image printed on the media is very important as this controls image intensity (i.e., how light or how dark an image is) and also affects toner runs cost. Dark images use more toner and, thus, cost more to run.
To measure the image density requires additional sensors with an increased machine cost and can also affect productivity. However, these sensors can be expensive. As a result, to save cost, most printers do not have sensors to monitor the current image density and automatically adjust and correct the solid area density which governs the light/dark appearance of the image. A low solid area density image appears very light. A high solid area density will appear dark. A very high solid area density will still appear dark but will just be using more toner needlessly.
Without manual intervention, a printer can continue printing images that are either too dark or too light. This can lead to user complaints about images being too light to see or images being too dark such that image highlights are lost. In addition, images that are too dark cost more to run as toner is being used unnecessarily, thereby impacting the toner yield of the cartridge.
The present disclosure presents systems and methods to measure image density without needing an additional sensor or affecting productivity.